As an English Lit Major, Journalism Majors, todays “journalists of the world,” and I, via prerequisite curricula, shared many of the same English classes. I have often noted the “pupa-reporters” were so busy preparing to be journalists that they wouldn’t have “time” to do their reading before class, less likely complete a slew of entire novels the night before exams. Many times they only had “time” for The “Cliffs,” “Barnes” or “Sparks Notes” version of the original works themselves.
These brief synopses of the books gave one the overall “gist” of the storyline, main characters and themes, yet it was devoid of the beauty and literary genius conveyed by a book as a work of art itself, able to leave its fingerprints on the soul. Compare watching a trailer to watching a movie (and the book is always better than the movie ; )
To compound this dilemma, since the whole class got graded on a curve (with the best grades and the worst grades omitted), not only was much of the class discussion time spent educating those that came to class — it seemingly didn’t matter since nearly everyone got As, maybe Bs — if they just came to class, probably Cs or Ds if they didn’t. (Yes, I’m blowing the whistle on the education system of the Liberal Arts — that’s how dumbed down was the grading and it’s been progressively worse through the years... It used to be standard (up until probably the 1950s) to learn English, Latin, French, German, Greek & Hebrew — it was called a “classical education.” You wouldn’t believe what they pass for college exit exams now, I’ve graded the CAHSEE... if they can chop through pidgin english they graduate high school, according to the CaliforniA High School Exit Exams... But I digress...
The harder trade-off was that the pupil was at the mercy of whomever had pre-digested the watered-down version of the literary masterpiece and regurgitated it in the Cliffs notes or Barnes Notes — most “students” were totally unaware even that other people had surreptitiously “injected” “infected” parts to the “Cliffs Notes” or “Sparks Notes” that were purposely marred or outright inaccurate, for the end that the professor might tell who was using plagiarized “intellectual content” and had not come to the author’s original intent through their own studies and deductions.
Now there were some journalists that did and possibly still do study, but while watching the reporters ask some of the same questions to The Coronavirus Team that were already addressed last week, 3 repeats in one hour of questions — today alone — it dawned on me the revelation of my college days: some people are still not ready for class, and others are barely cramming, others cheating off their friends or agencies so they could ask a significant question. They had, and are, like when in college, missed and are missing the primary intent for which they were there then and are before The President, Country and World at present — To report on what The President and The Taskforce had said to do to ensure the overall escape from the pandemic of a plague and thereby, “Live!” (Eziekiel 16:6).
Now it bothers me a bit more than it did back then because the whole world is watching here and these are reporters to The President of The United States and The Coronavirus Taskforce — I would hope these people writing the headlines half the world will swallow “hook, line and sinker” would be the crem d’la crem. Not only is The Team’s time wasted, but the public’s time as well.
Now as I reflected on that, I noticed why that certain type of Christian who never really has time to study the Whole Word of God often gets along limping in their understanding of The Ways of God and therefore of God Himself. They will ask questions out loud on things God has already given clear answers on like, “How Come God Does This or That” or say things like, “God Would Never Do Such and Such,” though the Bible is replete with both History of the attestation of not only the day, time, year and hour He did such things, but also with the “why” He did them and for what was their didactic intent.
The reason, as I deduce, is that they may not have either read The Bible completely, or they didn’t understand it, or worse, rejected the revelation since it was incongruent with their own idolatrous image of God himself — or the worst — they read someone else’s “Cliffs Notes” version of God, not the image of God derived from The Original Copy signed and sealed through the ages.
See, the strange thing I found was, was that the better I understood what the author had written, the better I understood the author himself, and then the better I was at being able to understand the works of the author, and then the better equipped to interpret what he had written (for I better grasped his overall intent) — “line upon line, precept upon precept” (Isaiah 28:10).
That is exactly the point from where I started reading the Bible — I came to it as a student of God, looking to see all that had been written, so I might better grasp the one who wrote it and understand the parts of it within its framework — the way a house or a horse in a puzzle is really only comprehended when I have completed the puzzle in entirety — the house adjacent to a fenced field in proximity to the larger world and the rider is coming out for his daily ride with his friend, the horse, bringing his favorites: a juicy, orange carrot and three sugar cubes, and he has a brush in his hand, but no saddle is on the horse. Do you see? And he sees a storm is coming, for the clouds are on one side of the pasture, but there is a candle in the stable, and he will take the horse for a lap as the sun is setting before the storm comes and then they can both go into the barn...
Let’s not get focused on individual pieces but see how they connect in relation to the sum of the whole, hmmm? “The sum of Thy Word is truth, and every one of Thy righteous commandments endureth forever” (Ps 119:160).
Let me ask the question — what’s more important than reading the entire Bible through? It’s only 84.5 hours in length, Genesis through Revelation (66 Books). That’s 23 minutes a day to know all that’s recorded about God. that’s the genealogies, the so and so begat so and so, the numbering of the troops and tribes, the candle-snuffers, palm trees, food offerings and pomegranates. He hides some gems of revelation in the most obscure places...
Go ahead— ask me if I think it’s worth the investment!
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deut 29:29).
Book One, Genesis
These brief synopses of the books gave one the overall “gist” of the storyline, main characters and themes, yet it was devoid of the beauty and literary genius conveyed by a book as a work of art itself, able to leave its fingerprints on the soul. Compare watching a trailer to watching a movie (and the book is always better than the movie ; )
To compound this dilemma, since the whole class got graded on a curve (with the best grades and the worst grades omitted), not only was much of the class discussion time spent educating those that came to class — it seemingly didn’t matter since nearly everyone got As, maybe Bs — if they just came to class, probably Cs or Ds if they didn’t. (Yes, I’m blowing the whistle on the education system of the Liberal Arts — that’s how dumbed down was the grading and it’s been progressively worse through the years... It used to be standard (up until probably the 1950s) to learn English, Latin, French, German, Greek & Hebrew — it was called a “classical education.” You wouldn’t believe what they pass for college exit exams now, I’ve graded the CAHSEE... if they can chop through pidgin english they graduate high school, according to the CaliforniA High School Exit Exams... But I digress...
The harder trade-off was that the pupil was at the mercy of whomever had pre-digested the watered-down version of the literary masterpiece and regurgitated it in the Cliffs notes or Barnes Notes — most “students” were totally unaware even that other people had surreptitiously “injected” “infected” parts to the “Cliffs Notes” or “Sparks Notes” that were purposely marred or outright inaccurate, for the end that the professor might tell who was using plagiarized “intellectual content” and had not come to the author’s original intent through their own studies and deductions.
Now there were some journalists that did and possibly still do study, but while watching the reporters ask some of the same questions to The Coronavirus Team that were already addressed last week, 3 repeats in one hour of questions — today alone — it dawned on me the revelation of my college days: some people are still not ready for class, and others are barely cramming, others cheating off their friends or agencies so they could ask a significant question. They had, and are, like when in college, missed and are missing the primary intent for which they were there then and are before The President, Country and World at present — To report on what The President and The Taskforce had said to do to ensure the overall escape from the pandemic of a plague and thereby, “Live!” (Eziekiel 16:6).
Now it bothers me a bit more than it did back then because the whole world is watching here and these are reporters to The President of The United States and The Coronavirus Taskforce — I would hope these people writing the headlines half the world will swallow “hook, line and sinker” would be the crem d’la crem. Not only is The Team’s time wasted, but the public’s time as well.
Now as I reflected on that, I noticed why that certain type of Christian who never really has time to study the Whole Word of God often gets along limping in their understanding of The Ways of God and therefore of God Himself. They will ask questions out loud on things God has already given clear answers on like, “How Come God Does This or That” or say things like, “God Would Never Do Such and Such,” though the Bible is replete with both History of the attestation of not only the day, time, year and hour He did such things, but also with the “why” He did them and for what was their didactic intent.
The reason, as I deduce, is that they may not have either read The Bible completely, or they didn’t understand it, or worse, rejected the revelation since it was incongruent with their own idolatrous image of God himself — or the worst — they read someone else’s “Cliffs Notes” version of God, not the image of God derived from The Original Copy signed and sealed through the ages.
See, the strange thing I found was, was that the better I understood what the author had written, the better I understood the author himself, and then the better I was at being able to understand the works of the author, and then the better equipped to interpret what he had written (for I better grasped his overall intent) — “line upon line, precept upon precept” (Isaiah 28:10).
That is exactly the point from where I started reading the Bible — I came to it as a student of God, looking to see all that had been written, so I might better grasp the one who wrote it and understand the parts of it within its framework — the way a house or a horse in a puzzle is really only comprehended when I have completed the puzzle in entirety — the house adjacent to a fenced field in proximity to the larger world and the rider is coming out for his daily ride with his friend, the horse, bringing his favorites: a juicy, orange carrot and three sugar cubes, and he has a brush in his hand, but no saddle is on the horse. Do you see? And he sees a storm is coming, for the clouds are on one side of the pasture, but there is a candle in the stable, and he will take the horse for a lap as the sun is setting before the storm comes and then they can both go into the barn...
Let’s not get focused on individual pieces but see how they connect in relation to the sum of the whole, hmmm? “The sum of Thy Word is truth, and every one of Thy righteous commandments endureth forever” (Ps 119:160).
Let me ask the question — what’s more important than reading the entire Bible through? It’s only 84.5 hours in length, Genesis through Revelation (66 Books). That’s 23 minutes a day to know all that’s recorded about God. that’s the genealogies, the so and so begat so and so, the numbering of the troops and tribes, the candle-snuffers, palm trees, food offerings and pomegranates. He hides some gems of revelation in the most obscure places...
Go ahead— ask me if I think it’s worth the investment!
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deut 29:29).
Book One, Genesis
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